Although Leigh Thomas looks relaxed and carefree enough in the cover photograph, her first album features songs which document a 'challenging childhood' and the difficult process of coming to terms with many dark memories.
The problems stem largely from a troubled relationship with a violent and authoritarian father whole job in the military also meant that her family had to up sticks every 3-4 years - "I can't tell you where I'm from. I can oly tell you where I've been" she says.
On the nostalgic track 'Blytheville' we gather that the town of the song's title, which she left at the age of 12, is the one she calls home.
The eleven songs of this record can be classed as the blues and views of a mature woman. They chart life as a metaphorical journey filled with more than her fair share of guilt and pain. On one song ('Least of All You'), Thomas hints that at a low point of heartache and self abuse in the mid 1990s she even had thoughts of suicide ("No-one knew what I nearly gave in to")
The perspective of the record is that of a seasoned survivor with all the strength and power that this generates. On 'I'm A Woman' she is now able to boast how "I reign over lands, and men and pain"
The debilitating hurt of bitter experience is voiced philosophically, a little too glibly in my view. I find it hard to believe that there's no lingering sense of rage too. It's one thng to treat bad times as learning curves but by airbrushing out the harshness we're only presented with the glossy outcome rather than the messy process that led there.
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On 'Differently' , for instance, she concludes "What harm is a little regret to wake us up inside" and she makes a similar case for personal growth in the face of hardship on songs like 'Good Mistake' and 'Beautiful Pain'.
The nearest song to get beneath this surface veneer is 'I Don't Understand' where the slow and ugly demise of her parents marriage is seen from a childhood perspective. The emotional force of this means Thomas has said that while singing the line "In my momma's bedroom. Black eyes and auburn hair' she was reduced to tears.
You'd think that the closing track ('Back Home') about the unsolved murder of her grandfather in New Orleans in 1963 would carry a similar emotional weight but the lyrics make it seem like just another bitter sweet refrain about finding her true roots ("Can you take me back to where I belong?").
Most of this record has the easy listening twang of country-pop with the exception of 'Down With You' where the more rock orientated feel and funky bass groove has more in common with Grace Jones than Patsy Cline.
Thomas's pure voice helps in smoothing out the rough edges of despair but the end result is that the songs are much too light in tone and stand in marked contrast to the weight of feelings that inspired them.
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